


Alektra

by Whisper132



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-23
Updated: 2008-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-23 14:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/251514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whisper132/pseuds/Whisper132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niou has a secret that Yagyuu must never know about or his life will crumble into a ball of teen angst and woe.  Alternately titled "Teen emo-Tion."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alektra

Niou dug through his tennis bag and stared at his bus pass. He didn't want to go. It was more than the general dislike of academics and his classmates; it was a gut-deep dread that the first day back at school would unravel everything he'd worked so hard to achieve the previous year. Just one wrong word, one wrong gesture and his school life, his game—everything would slip away and leave him with nothing.

"Masaharu! You'll be late!" His mother shoved a lunch bag in his hands and started pushing him out the door. "Remember to bring your gym clothes home so I can wash them. What were you thinking, leaving them to rot all summer?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll bring 'em." He didn't even have it in his heart to mouth off properly, just shoved his lunch in his tennis bag and dragged his feet out of the house and toward the bus stop.

He boarded the bus.

  
*****

  
"You look like shit." Even at an ungodly hour in the morning, Niou could still count on Marui to tell it like it was.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep," Niou said. "Now shut up and help me stretch."

Marui's nails dug into Niou's shoulders while they stretched out before running their morning laps. Sanada wasn't giving anyone any breaks, especially not after the entire team had been "slacking off" for the summer. "Why'd I have to get stuck with you? You're moodier than a freaking girl." Marui's nails dug in harder. "You have a fight with Yagyuu or something? My genius isn't going to transfer to you by osmosis if that's what you're trying for."

"Leave Yagyuu out of it." Niou's words were sharper than he'd wanted. Crap, he was being moody. "He's been dealing with family stuff. He probably won't be here for a few more days." That's what the latest text message said, at least. Niou had stopped really reading them a week ago. Just looking at Yagyuu's name made Niou's stomach flip over itself in a prickly, sickly way.

"I see," Marui hummed. He pulled away from Niou. "Just call him and get whatever it is off your chest. You'll ruin your game if you're arguing. This one time, I was mad at Jackal because he ate the last crescent roll at this buffet, right? And we totally sucked all week. Then Sanada yelled at us and we talked and now we're okay."

"I don't remember you sucking more than you usually do." Niou hated that Jackal and Marui routinely kicked his and Yagyuu's asses. He and Yagyuu were a new doubles team, though, so they had room to grow–provided Niou could ever look Yagyuu in the face again. Marui and his big mouth only had room to gain a pants size and deteriorate.

Marui kneed Niou in the back. "We did a summer tournament. We won, but some guys scored on us. " They switched places and Marui bent forward, stretching out his back. "You guys should have come. You need the practice before qualifiers."

"I said Yagyuu was busy." He didn't mean to sound so pissed, but it just came out that way.

"Got it. Got it." Marui sat up out of his stretch and shrugged off Niou's help. "I'm starting my laps. See ya."

Niou watched Marui leave and, with a sigh, sat down, legs sprawled in front of him.

"Trouble?" Yanagi leaned over, casting a shadow across Niou's legs.

"None of your business." Niou got to his feet and took off after Marui. He wasn't going to give anyone else the satisfaction of taunting him on the worst day of his life.

  
*****

  
Classes were horrible. He kept having flashbacks, vivid flashbacks of dry lips on his, hands tracing his sides, and a slick tongue pressing at the corners of his mouth. Any time he thought he was free to let his mind wander, the images came, curling his stomach into a nauseous knot. His palms grew sweaty as he remembered, and he fidgeted in his chair. It had felt good, but after it was a nightmare.

He couldn't function like this. He skipped practice.

  
*****

  
"Niou-kun, Sanada called me. Is something wrong? Why weren't you at practice?"

It was the fifteenth time Niou'd listened to Yagyuu's message. Each time Niou heard it, he imagined Yagyuu's creased forehead and tight jaw. He imagined Yagyuu's arms crossed and his foot fighting to tap and occasionally giving in even though Yagyuu's mother scolded her son, saying that foot tapping was rude, no matter if it's toward your friend or not.

"Niou-kun…"

Yagyuu said his name in such a nice way. It tightened Niou's stomach just hearing it.

The phone rang again, and Niou answered by reflex. "Uh, yeah?" he said when nobody responded.

"Niou-kun." Yagyuu didn't sound happy. The earlier voicemail was full of concerned sweetness. The Yagyuu on the telephone was shooting laser beams with his voice.

"Uh, yeah?" If Niou stuck to stupid, simple answers he could get off the phone with his dignity intact.

There was silence for a moment, then Yagyuu's voice cracked through. "I'm coming over."

The phone went dead.

  
*****

  
Niou's mother happily let Yagyuu in even though it was already nine on a school night. They'd done school-day sleepovers before, and their parents were always okay with it so long as the boys had lights off at a decent hour and didn't harass anyone who was trying to sleep.

"Sanada is upset," Yagyuu began after they'd locked themselves in Niou's room.

"That's because he isn't getting any."

"Be serious." Yagyuu's voice held in it the calm that came right before a typhoon. "You skipped our first practice. He could pull you from the regulars. Where would that leave me?"

"Look, he's not pulling me from the regulars. It was just one practice. Everything'll be fine." Lies. So many lies. Nothing was ever going to be fine again.

Yagyuu cleared his throat and sat down on Niou's bed. Instead of sitting hip to hip, as they usually did, Yagyuu positioned himself at the end of the bed, leg up and resting between himself and Niou. "You didn't call me this summer."

"I was busy."

"Too busy to call?" Yagyuu's eyebrows rose up above the rims of his glasses. He either had somewhere he wanted the conversation to go or was going to get violent. Either was possible. Niou hoped it was violence. He'd rather get into a fistfight with Yagyuu than try to talk about the worst summer of his life.

"Yeah," Niou said. "Too busy to call."

"I spoke with Yanagi-kun this afternoon."

Fuck. He didn't say it, though he had to bite his lip. "So?" he managed instead. "What's he got to do with anything? Send him to spy on me or something?"

Yagyuu reached a finger up and pushed his glasses back on his nose. "I heard," he said, "some interesting things, Niou-kun."

  
******

It was Thursday and the hottest day of the summer so far. Niou didn't have anything to do with his time since Yagyuu was away with his family, so when Yanagi texted him and asked if he would like to practice a little, Niou accepted.

"How far has your relationship with Yagyuu gone?" Yanagi asked after kicking Niou's ass for the sixth set straight.

"Aren't you supposed to know everything already? Why're you asking me?" In the shower that morning, Niou had just been thinking about how slowly his relationship with Yagyuu was developing. He concluded it was because Yagyuu was a late bloomer and not at all because he didn't think Niou was attractive. Niou was plenty attractive compared to some other options on the team.

"I sensed there was some retarded growth between the two of you." Yanagi shrugged.

"Are you calling me retarded?"

Yanagi laughed. It was a different kind of laugh than any Niou had heard before. "Perhaps Yagyuu is waiting until you've acquired more experience."

"I have plenty of experience." Niou's experience only stretched as far as the shower and some conditioner, but he'd never admit it. He hadn't even kissed anyone other than family members. Still, he felt pretty average for his age and didn't think Yagyuu was brimming with tales of hot, steamy nights either.

"Is it the right experience?" While Niou was busy being irritated, Yanagi had come in closer. "Have you done so much as kiss?"

And before Niou could push back, Yanagi's lips met his. Niou didn't have a mind to protest, he just stood under the summer sun, receiving the pressure of Yanagi's kiss on the tennis court. It wasn't until their racquets had fallen to the ground and their tongues had met that Niou remembered Yagyuu.

"Shit," he said. "Shit shit shit."

Yanagi picked up their racquets from the ground. "You'll do fine," he said, turning to leave once Niou had taken his racquet back. "See you at practice."

  
*****

  
There was no way for Niou to say how ashamed he was or how disgusted with himself he felt, so he stayed silent, immobilized by Yagyuu's frown.

Yagyuu leaned forward. "I'm upset with you, Niou-kun. You should have confessed immediately." Inch by inch, Yagyuu scooted closer.

"I didn't want to tell anyone. I'd rather die." He couldn't breathe. The walls of his room edged closer with each small movement Yagyuu made. "Look, let's just forget it happened, okay? I just…want to forget."

Yagyuu's hand reached up and Niou flinched. A deep hum rumbled from Yagyuu's throat. "Niou-kun, I can't just forget this."

Before Niou could protest that he'd had heat stroke or make some other excuse, Yagyuu's body was pressed against his and Yagyuu's lips were burning away any memory of Yanagi's kiss that Niou might have had. Yagyuu's teeth tugged at Niou's bottom lip; his hands slid below Niou's shirt and toward his back, fingernails trailing and drawing a small, mewling noise from Niou.

"Boys! No fighting!"

In less than a heartbeat, they were again on opposite ends of the bed, the immediacy of the moment doused by Niou's mother's call.

"Still mad?" Niou struggled to uncurl his shirt; part of it was rolled up under his armpit and looped through the armhole.

"Yes," Yagyuu said. "But not at you." He reached a hand out and patted Niou's knee. "Come to practice tomorrow, Niou-kun. Yanagi-kun and I are having a practice match. You should enjoy it."

A feeling of dread returned. "I think I'm getting a cold."

Yagyuu's hand squeezed Niou's knee. "Come." A moment longer, Niou nodded his assent and Yagyuu rose off the bed. "I'll go home now. I still have homework to finish."

"See you tomorrow, I guess."

Yagyuu nodded and left the room. Niou thought about texting Yanagi, warning him to stay home, but decided against it. If he was really so smart, he'd figure it out himself.


End file.
